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"Publishing Books Using Your PC"

Table of Contents

1           Introduction       15

1.1        Why Become Your Own Publisher?            15

1.2        Motivation         17

1.3        Subjects          18
1.3.1         Works of Fiction            18
1.3.2         Works of Non-Fiction            19

1.4        Outline Publishing Process            21

1.5        PC Technology and You      23

1.6        Marketing  ....and the Internet 24
1.6.1         Electronic Books            25

1.7        Printing Methods            25
1.7.1         Low Volume or High Volume Production            26

2          The Tools You Need            29

2.1        Basic Equipment Needed 29
2.1.1         Your PC        29
2.1.2         Computer Jargon       30
2.1.3         Laptops vs. Traditional static PC ‘Workstations        30
2.1.4         The Base Unit            30
2.1.5         The Monitor 32
2.1.6         Health Aspects            33
2.1.7         Keyboard and Mouse          33

2.2        Printers            34
2.2.1         General Points   34
2.2.2         Inkjet / Bubblejet Printers          34
2.2.3         Laser Printers 35
2.2.4         Digital ‘Duplicators’            39
2.2.5         Other Types of Home / Office Style Printer   41
2.2.6         Office / Home Style Printer Summary            42

2.3        Image and OCR scanners            42

2.4        Modems: Dial-up vs. Broadband            43

2.5        Conclusions and typical costings for computer equipment            44
2.5.1         Budget for the basic PC equipment required 44

2.6        Software – Do you need a Specialist Desktop Publishing Package?            46

2.7        Other PC Software that the Publisher / Small Business will Find Useful            48

3          Format, Presentation and Style            51

3.1        Format, Layout & Styles            51
3.1.1         Organising by indented levels    52
3.1.2         Section numbering            54
3.1.3         Text Justification            55
3.1.4         The Amount of Text on a Page and Paper Economy            55
3.1.5         Fonts and font sizes            55
3.1.6         Font classification            56
3.1.7         Special characters and maths notation            57

4          Content Planning and Writing Your Book     59

4.1        Create a ‘Storyboard’            59

4.2        Use of English 60

4.3        Keeping to the Rules of English Grammar            61

4.4        Using the  Spell-Checker & Grammar-Checker            62

4.5        General Advice on Writing Style            62

4.6        Delivering Your Message            63

4.7        Publishing and the Law (as applied in the UK) 63
4.7.1            Reproducing Copyrighted Material 64

4.8            Practical Advice for Maintaining Documents and Work-in-Progress            65
4.8.1         Organising your PC file directories            65
4.8.2         Saving and ‘backing-up’ your work            65
4.8.3         Breaking the document into manageable chunks  66
4.8.4         Images and diagrams            66
4.8.5         Drawing packages            69
4.8.6         ClipArt            69
4.8.7         Formatting while working on a document            70
4.8.8         Collaborative writing            71

5            Finalising Your Manuscript            73

          5.1        Tidying up         73
5.1.1         Formatting         74
5.1.2         Page set-up: Margins and Printable Area     75
5.1.3         Headers & footers            76
5.1.4         Position of new chapter pages   76
5.1.5         Formatting paragraph text       76

5.2        Conventional Book Structure            77
5.2.1         The Copyright page            77
5.2.2          Acknowledgements            78
5.2.3          Foreword          78
5.2.4         Preface            78
5.2.5         Table of Contents (TOC)            78
5.2.6         Glossary, Bibliography, Appendices etc.            79
5.2.7         Creating an index            79

5.3        Specific Tips if you are going print your books with a Photocopier            80

5.4        Proof-reading  81
5.4.1         Proof reading conventions            81
5.4.2         Peer review   82

6          Getting Published            83

6.1        Choosing a Title and the Importance of Keywords            83

6.2        ISBN Numbers            84
6.2.1         New style ISBNs            84
6.2.2         Why are ISBNs Important            85
6.2.3         What kinds of publications are covered by ISBNs? 85
6.2.4         What ISBNs do not cover     85
6.2.5         How to obtain an ISBN            85
6.2.6         Rules for use of  ISBN numbers            86
6.2.7         The Barcode            86

6.3        International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs) 87

6.4        Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)            87

6.5        Libraries: Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) Data            88

6.6        The New Titles Form            89

6.7        Publishing Legalities            90
6.7.1         Legal requirements (UK): book depositions            90
6.7.2         Copyright         90

6.8        Internet Print-On-Demand Services            91
6.8.1         Print on Demand Service or Vanity Publisher?            92

7            Preparing For Production            93

7.1        Visit your Local Printer   93

7.2        Internet-based Services, Digital Printers, Print-on-Demand (POD)            93

7.3        Hardback or Soft-back?            94

7.4        Book Cover Design            94
7.4.1         Further details for paperback cover production            95
7.4.2         The Front Cover            95
7.4.3         Using the back cover            95
7.4.4         The Spine    96

8          Binding Methods            97

8.1        Binding Options 97

8.2        Perfect Binding 98
8.2.1         Is Perfect Binding Accessible to Self-Publishers?            99
8.2.2         Doing your own Perfect Binding            100

8.3        Binding with Wire Staples 101

8.4        Ring Binders 102

8.5        Wire Loop Binding            103

8.6        Coil Binding 104

8.7        Thermal Binding 105

8.8        Hard Back Covers            106
8.8.1         Other Binding Methods            107

9          Bulk Printing and Finishing            109

9.1        Create a Master Copy            109

9.2        Printing Tools for Your PC        110
9.2.1         ‘Booklet Printing’            110

9.3        Printing Costs and Economics            111

9.4        Binding Costs    113

9.5        Paper Quality  114

9.5.1         Paper for laser printers and photocopying            114

9.5.2         Paper selection for conventional printing  115

9.6        Manufacturing books through a Print On Demand (POD) Service            115

9.7        An Incremental Process            117
9.7.1         Transferring from photocopying / laser printing to a conventional printing press     118
9.7.2         Using the Conventional Printing Process            118

10            Marketing and Sales            121

10.1      Marketing Principles            121
10.1.1       Unique Selling Proposition (USP)   122
10.1.2       Who and Where is your Market?            122

10.2      Pricing            123
10.2.1       Pricing Specialist Publications            124
10.2.2   Pricing and Economics            125

10.3      The Distribution Process            126
10.3.1       Direct selling   127
10.3.2       Selling through retail outlets  128
10.3.3       Selling to Libraries            129
10.3.4       Selling through Book Suppliers            129
10.3.5       Corporate Sales            129
10.3.6       Sales through a POD Website            130
10.3.7       Sales through Your Own Website            130

10.4      Selling your books as pdf files: ‘eBooks’            131

10.5      More about the Sales Process            132
10.5.1       Terms and conditions            132
10.5.2       Price Discounting            132

10.6      Processing Sales Orders  133

10.7      Packaging         133
10.7.1       Shrink-Wrap Covering            133

10.8      Starting up a New Business            133
10.8.1       Setting up a bank account 134
10.8.2       Invoicing          134
10.8.3       The Invoice Cycle            136
10.8.4       Book trade orders and TeleOrdering            136
10.8.5       PO Box numbers and cheques            136
10.8.6       Debit and Credit and charge card sales    136
10.8.7       Overseas earnings (exports)            138

10.9      Maintaining Sales Records and Book Keeping            138

10.10    Other Sources of Revenue and Funding 140

10.11    Earnings from Spin-Offs            140

11            Advertising and Publicity            143

11.1      Free and Low Cost Advertising            143
11.1.1       Newspaper articles            144
11.1.2       Local and regional press    144

11.2      Preparing a Press Release            144
11.2.1       Advice for Writing a Press Release            145
11.2.2       Press Release Format            146

11.3      Advertising in National Press, Journals and Magazines            146
11.3.1       Making the advert count            147
11.3.2       The AIDA principle            147
11.3.3       Should you Adopt the ‘Blunderbuss’ Approach?            148
11.3.4       Advertising: discounts and payment terms    148
11.3.5       The Advert as an order form            148
11.3.6       Mailshots         149

12         The Internet and Creating a Website            151

12.1      What is the Internet?            151
12.1.1       How is it Useful to Authors and Publishers?            151

12.2      Internet Service Providers (ISPs)            152
12.2.1       Email            152
12.2.2       Websites and Web Pages   152

12.3      Creating a Website            153
12.3.1       Obtaining your Domain name / website address 153
12.3.2       Getting Started  154
12.3.3       How do you create a website?            155

12.4      Your Website as a Shop     156
12.4.1       Creating an On-line Shop            158
12.4.2       eBay Shop: an Alternative e-commerce solution 159
12.4.3       Downloadable pdf Files from your Website            160

12.5      Getting Noticed on the Web     161
12.5.1       The Importance of Key Words            161
12.5.2       The role of Internet Search Engines            162
12.5.3       How to get listed in Search Engines            162
12.5.4       What not to do to get listed in Search Engines            163
12.5.5       Other methods for getting noticed on the Internet and Search Engines            163
12.5.6       Monitoring the Effectiveness of your website            166

Glossary            169

Appendix            175

Model Project Plan      179
INDEX   185

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